Strongly aromatic and warm. For an overview about the flavours of several
spices from the parsley family, see
cicely.

Of some common herbs, caraway-scented varieties or cultivars are available
in specialized plant nurseries; examples include
mint and thyme.
None of these plants, however, reaches caraway in its culinary importance.

Caraway fruits may contain 3% to 7% essential oil. The aroma of the oil is
mostly dominated by carvone (50 to 85%) and limonene (20 to 30%);
the other components carveol, dihydro­carveol, α- and β-pinene, sabinene
and perillyl alcohol are of much minor importance.

Central Europe to Asia; it is not clear, however, whether caraway is truly
indigenous to Europe. Today, it is chiefly cultivated in Finland, the Netherlands,
Eastern Europe and Germany, furthermore North Africa, particularly Egypt.

The German term for caraway, Kümmel, derives from Latin
cuminum for cumin and was
misapplied to the plant popular in Germany. Latin cuminum
leads, via Greek kyminon [κύμινον],
further back to Semitic forms, e. g.,
Old Hebrew kammon [כמן].

Some names for caraway in tongues of Europe, especially Northern Europe (where
caraway is particularly popular), also relate to Latin cuminum,
e. g., Danish kommen, Latvian ķimenes,
Estonian köömen, Polish kminek
and Bulgarian kim [ким].
Some of these names were transmitted via the German name.

Similarly to Latin cuminum, Greek karon [κάρον]
means cumin, not caraway. Its origin
is not clear; it derives maybe from the name of a region in Asia Minor (Caria),
but may well be a variant of Greek kyminoncumin or belong to the kin of coriander.
The word was transferred to Latin as carum with the changed meaning
caraway and thus gave rise to number of modern names of caraway, e. g.,
French carvi, Italian caro,
Greek karvi [καρβί]
and Norwegian karve.

The English term caraway also belongs to that series: It was probably
mediated by Arabic (modern form al-karawya [الكراويا])
from Latin carum. Cf. the Iberic names
Portuguese alcaravia and Spanish alcaravea
and see also capers on the derivation of the
prefix al-, which relates to the Arabic article.

Caraway plant in flower

Ripening caraway fruits

Caraway is a spice mostly loved in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe;
languages of other regions often lack a specific name for caraway, but use
the name of cumin instead, often with a geo­graphic
epithet referring to Germany: Turkish frenk kimyonuFrankish cumin, Italian cumino tedesco
(Finnish saksan­kumina) German cumin or
Hindi vilayati jeera [विलायती जीरा]
foreign cumin. Hebrew
has taken another course by backloaning the German Kümmel via Yiddish
as kimmel [קימל], while the original
Semitic word for cumin is preserved
as kamoon [כמון].

The French name of caraway is carvi, but is little
used; frequently, caraway is termed cumin de présmeadow cumin, especially in the North, where is grows wild
abundantly. Some French texts even speak of cumin,
which in most cases equals English cumin,
when caraway is meant — here the reader is challenged
to supply the correct context.

Care is also required concerning the Sanskrit name
karavi [कारवी],
reported to mean caraway by some sources (and suspiciously similar
to some European names of caraway); yet other sources translate that word
with cumin, dill,
fennel, asafetida
or even nigella!

The card game Three Card Monte (also known as Find the Lady)
is in German named Kümmelblättchen (literally
caraway leaflet, where leaf is taken to mean card);
yet this has nothing to do with caraway. Instead, the name derives from
the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, (gimel, ג),
in reference to the three cards used for that game (which is more often
a fraud to scam those not familiar with it). Hebrew gimel
is related to gamma and perhaps also camel.

Caraway is often recognized the most
typical spice of the German-speaking countries. It is an ancient spice of
Central Europe: Caraway fruits have indeed
been found in Neolithic villages (though that does only prove that
the plant grew there, not that caraway was actually utilized), and since
Roman times there is plenty of documentation for numerous culinary
and medicinal application — not least to mention
caraway-flavoured liquor, known as kummel in the USA, that
is mostly produced and consumed in Northern Germany and Scandinavia
(akvavit). Although caraway is a common plant of
Alpine meadows at low elevation, is was grown systematically in
medieval monasteries, mainly to its extremely effective antiflatulent
powers (see also lovage);
there is still some domestic production of caraway in Germany, although
most now stems from Egyptian imports.

Caraway flower

Caraway is the spice that gives Southern German and Austrian foods, be it meat,
vegetable or rye bread, their characteristic flavour. It is also popular in
Scandinavia and particularly in the Baltic states, but is hardly known in
Southern Europe. True caraway
aficionados use the whole fruits, but even the powder is
strongly aromatic. Caraway’s aroma does not harmonize with most other spices,
but its combination with garlic is effective and
popular in Austria and Southern Germany for meat (e. g., roast pork Schweinsbraten) and vegetables. German Sauerkraut (sour cabbage made by lactic fermentation) is always
flavoured with caraway (and juniper). Unfermented
boiled cabbage without caraway lacks character. Some cheese varieties from
Central Europe contain caraway grains; see also blue
fenugreek.

Flowering caraway plant

Caraway flower

Caraway is a contro­versial spice; to many, it appears dominant and dis­agreeable,
especially to those who are not used to a cuisine rich in caraway. Usage of the
ground spice is a working compromise; another method is wrapping the fruits in
a small piece of linen cloth (or simply a tea bag) so that it can be removed
before serving.

Caraway is of some importance in the cuisines of North Africa, mostly in
Tunisia. Several recipes of Tunisian harissa [هريسة], a fiery paste
made of dried chiles, call for caraway, and the
same is true on a similar preparation found in Yemen, zhoug
(see coriander).

Outside the indicated areas, caraway is rather uncommon. If you ever find
references to caraway in books about Middle East, Indian or Far East cooking,
then the most probable explanation is a translation mistake and you should
probably read cumin.
The same holds for the appearance of caraway
in several Bible translations (see pomegranate for
details). At last, there are some Indian cookbooks employing caraway for North
Indian foods, but I suspect that black cumin is
meant instead. While caraway does appear in Indian foods, it is only of marginal importance.